Category Archives: Uncategorized

Wooster’s Fossil of the Week: A new microconchid genus and species (Permian of Texas)

Two years ago I was invited to Texas by Tom Yancey (Texas A&M) to look at some curious wiggly tubular fossils in the Lower Permian (about 280 million years old). They form small reefs a meter or so across and … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Wooster’s Fossil of the Week: an orthid brachiopod (Upper Ordovician of Indiana)

This beautiful brachiopod is Vinlandostrophia ponderosa (Foerste, 1909), an orthid brachiopod from the Maysvillian (Upper Ordovician) of southern Indiana. Until recently it had been traditionally known as Platystrophia ponderosa until a critical paper by Zuykov and Harper (2007) investigated the … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Wooster Geologist on the Crampton’s Gap Battlefield in northern Maryland

In September 1862, Union forces under General George B. McClellan pursued General Robert E. Lee‘s Army of Northern Virginia through northwestern Maryland. Lee had invaded Maryland to demoralize the North ahead of the November elections, and to convince Europe that … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , | 7 Comments

Wooster’s Fossil of the Week: a baculitid ammonite (Cretaceous of Wyoming)

This is a specimen I often place on my Invertebrate Paleontology course lab tests. It is the “straight” ammonite Baculites, which is common enough, but the shell and internal walls (septa) have dissolved completely away, leaving this strangely articulated set … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | 4 Comments

Wooster’s Fossil of the Week: an Italian keyhole limpet (Pliocene of Cyprus)

This week’s fossil is a beautiful little gastropod (snail) scientifically known as Diodora italica (Defrance, 1820), and commonly as the Italian Keyhole Limpet. I collected it with Steve Dornbos (’97) during the 1996 Keck Geology Expedition to Cyprus, where it … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

George Davis (’64) gives the Thirty-First Annual Osgood Memorial Lecture

WOOSTER, OHIO–We were greatly honored this evening to have one of our own, Dr. George Davis (Wooster ’64), present the 31st Annual Richard G. Osgood, Jr., Memorial Lecture. The Osgood Lectureship was endowed in 1981 by the three sons of … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , | 3 Comments

Exploring the Silica Formation (Middle Devonian) in Northwestern Ohio

PAULDING, OHIO–There’s nothing like the stirring rings of 50 geologic hammers in the morning. Today I was a guest of the North Coast Fossil Club and my friend Brian Bade in a quarry exposing the Middle Devonian limestones and shales. … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Wooster Geology Heads to Wayne Elementary

On Friday afternoon, a group of Wooster geologists participated in an educational outreach program at Wayne Elementary. Marge Forbush, an educator at Wayne always asks the department to come to her classroom twice a year. In the fall, we spend … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , | 3 Comments

How Fossils Saved Civilization: A National Fossil Day Talk

WOOSTER, OHIO — National Fossil Day has now been in place for two years. Curiously enough, two Wooster alumnae, Erica Clites and Eva Lyon, have been critical organizers and promoters of this great event as Paleontology Interns with the National … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , | 1 Comment

They’re back! Nursery school students visit the tree-ring lab

WOOSTER, OHIO — This time it was the turn of Dr. Greg Wiles to host the The College of Wooster Nursery School children as they visited Scovel Hall and its world-famous Wooster Tree-Ring Laboratory. He had ambitious plans for the … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , | 1 Comment